Some Observations on the Non-News

by J. Orlin Grabbe

The most notable feature of the current state of
journalism in the U.S. is the total dereliction of duty on
the part of national political reporters. More than fifty
congresscritters, senators, and state governors have
announced their retirements in the past year, after they
received packets from a group of hackers called the Fifth
Column detailing illegal and unreported income from
bribes, kickbacks, payoffs, and whatnot. This story of the
wholesale sell-out of the U.S. political process should rank
as one of the top stories of the decade. But the national
media blandly reports the contrived explanations ("I just
want to spend more time with my heretofore neglected
family") and speculates on the sad loss of Washington
country-club camaraderie that used to keep such fine
people in public office forever.

This lack of discernment reflects a level of
stupidity that should make unsurprising the general media
dismissal of the importance of Whitewater (prior to the
recent convictions obtained by Kenneth Starr), the head-
in-the-sand stance on the murder of Vince Foster (even
though virtually all official Washington knows Foster was
murdered), the gullible acceptance of the official story on
the downing of Ron Brown's plane (destroyed by a bomb),
the lackadaisical acceptance of Bob Dole's claimed reasons
for resigning from the Senate (he got a Fifth Column
packet two days before the announcement), the air-head
discussions of the coming "Clinton-Dole" election battle
(as though there is going to be any such thing), and the
"smell of roses" interpretation of the putrefying stench
arising from almost everything the Clinton administration
touches.

To be sure, some journalists have picked up part of
the story. But often they have pursued the partial picture
with a monomania that has turned their entire effort into a
circus sideshow. One example is that of Ambrose Evans-
Pritchard and Chis Ruddy who, while still trying to
convince who-knows-whom that the death of Vince Foster
was not a suicide, managed to acquire a Pet Witness to the
disposal of Foster's body at Ft. Marcy Park--a witness
whom they paraded forth with fanfare, accompanied by
tales of swarthy Middle-Eastern lurkers who scowled
fiercely in broad daylight (a staged event effective in
impressing naive journalists). When the Special
Prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, failed to drop everything he
was doing and devote himself to enhancing these
journalist's own sense of self-importance, he became,
naturally, part of the cover-up. But Starr wisely continued
to follow his mandate to untangle Whitewater-related
malfeasance on the part of the Clintons, and left the
sideshow antics to these misguided journalists who hadn't
a clue as to what was going on. Starr, after all, knew what
he was doing. (Although, to be sure, it took Starr a while
to realize that the FBI was out and about intimidating his
own witnesses, a fact Ruddy was to point out.)

The goal of the FBI in all this has been to keep
reporters in a state of somnambulism. But last week Louis
Freeh suddenly discovered his bread wasn't buttered on the
side of Bill Clinton, announcing that the White House
request for FBI files on prominent Republicans and others
outside the Clinton administration had been totally
inappropriate. The White House made a statement that the
whole thing was really just the fault of some Clinton
underling operating out-of-control as usual. Freeh's
statement meanwhile leaves unexplained why the FBI
turned over the 400-plus files to the White House in the
first place. Freeh's stated 400-plus number of files upped
the ante from the White House's admitted 300-plus
number. It also illustrates that the FBI can't count, or can't
tell the whole truth, since the actual number is 900-plus, as
has been verified by anyone who has bothered to download
the same set of files from the FBI computer, such as that
other government agency that is looking into the matter.
Maybe Bernie Nussbaum took the rest of the files home,
just to make sure the wrong people didn't read them.

Freeh of course is coming off the PR high of
having ended the Freemen siege without bloodshed. But
his problems in Montana aren't over. There is the little
matter of Montana FBI agents involved in drug dealing.

The Canadian-Montana border is now the principal
point of entry of illegal drugs coming into the U.S.
Montana is awash in them. A series of clandestine
airfields stretches across the state. Naturally the journalists
covering the Freemen picked up none of this bigger story
right under their noses. Big names are involved in the drug
operation, including the soon-to-be-indicted Governor of
Montana. Another name that surfaces in the Montana
operation is that of ex-President George Bush.

Bush's indiscretions are beginning to catch up with
him. This past week he took a trip to Bern, Switzerland,
together with Colin Powell, who is not running for
President. It seems that an arms deal between the two of
them went sour when a relevant account at the local bank
turned up missing $75 million dollars. In panic mode they
flew over to try to patch things up. Hope you two boys
remembered to smile a lot: You were on candid camera.
Maybe you should try something legal for a change?

Others are more overt in their criminality. Jackson
Stephens, Don Tyson, and Richard Mellon Scaife recently
pooled their pocket change and put out a $100,000
contract on the Angel of Death.
They farmed it out to the
New Orleans Syndicate. The breakdown is reportedly
$50,000 by Stephens, and $25,000 each by Tyson and
Scaife. This makes the second time the lying Jackson
Stephens has hired an assassin this year ("I've learned my
lesson," he said, after the first one, Pablo, was put on a
plane back home). But I hear the CIA, which has never
really had anything against the corrupt politicians targeted
by the Angel of Death--after all they're much easier to
manipulate than the honest kind--has finally decided to get
on the right side of things. Say, Jack, what about that dead
body found lying in your backyard last week? You don't
suppose it was the chickenshit coming home to roost, do
you? As they say, payback is hell.

As if it weren't enough dealing with the criminals,
there are also the forces of law 'n order (if you want to call
them that) to worry about. Janet Reno sends word that the
Justice Dept. will leave the Angel of Death alone if he will
leave the Justice Dept. alone. It's an interesting
proposition: sort of like that of a pugilist who walks down
the street and punches a random passerby in the face, then
immediately announces, "Let's call a truce."

Ms. Reno, as one Harvard graduate to another I
take your word Justice didn't have anything to do with
destroying my private email and Usenet postings of
Hackers versus Politicians, Part II. You blamed the X2
division of NSA. Well, what about the actions of X2?
This is apparently the new Standard of Excellence at
Justice: As long as we don't commit any crimes ourselves,
we're doing okay.

One consolation is that X2 found those little
TCP/IP packets formed from Hackers versus Politicians
extremely toxic. Secret contents created a cancer in the
NSA computers that devoured them. Some NSA
computers were fried from mysterious voltage surges.
Others caught fire in thermite-like reactions. NSA
attributed these problems to an Act of God. This in itself
shows where NSA stands in the Divine Hierarchy.

One cannot say X2's instincts were wrong. The
Fifth Column has been supplying information to the
Special Prosecutor from the beginning. But after Hackers
versus Politicians appeared, hundreds of surprisingly
professional hackers began pouring relevant information
into the hands of Kenneth Starr and others. Their efforts
have greatly supplemented the work of the Fifth Column.

And all along Kenneth Starr has been quietly
building his cases brick by brick, preparing indictments
and sitting on them until the proper time, mapping out
court trials, sifting through evidence, not plea bargaining
when it is not necessary. In short, doing his job in a
masterful manner. But you will find few journalists on the
left or the right who will admit this, admit they were
wrong, even after the total success of the first Whitewater
trial. One assumes they will hold firm, even after Bill
Clinton resigns. Being a journalist, after all, means never
having to say you are sorry.